Is it me, my horn, my mouthpiece...?

Don Juan · Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2017 7:16 am Post subject:

Leading into my second year of college I ran into some playing problems. My sound turned stuffy, my high range gone, and I really felt like I couldn't get any air through the horn. My studio friends wondered what the hell happened to my playing (I wasn't amazing, but was climbing the studio ranks). I had terrible ensemble auditions to open the school year and was very upset with what was going on. I thought I was broken...

I'm practicing one day and ask an older student for some help, he takes my horn and is about to blow a few notes, looks down the center of the mouthpiece into the lead pipe and realizes something is wrong. He takes off the mouthpiece to reveal that there was less than a pencil point of air able to get through a completely clogged and congested shank.

You would not believe the miracles that happened to my playing after I cleaned it out. And neither could my friends. I was a completely different (and better) player instantaneously. I likened it to training a whole summer with the weight of a clogged mouthpiece.

Anyways, the point is, CLEAN your mouthpiece often and avoid putting yourself through unnecessary troubles lol.

Trumpetingbynurture · Heavyweight Member Joined: 18 Nov 2015 Posts: 898

John Mohan · Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2017 9:00 am Post subject:

I had a chance to play a Wild Thing at one of the Chicago Trumpet Hangs several years ago. It played very dark, with a sound I would describe as almost sounding tubby. Not brilliant. Note that I normally play a Burbank Benge 6X (a large bore trumpet with a fairly tight bell), which is a pretty bright horn.

And also, what we hear behind the horn when playing is not what the audience hears out front. I have often had the situation when A/B testing different mouthpieces and even different horns, where the horn I think sounds brighter sounds darker to critical listeners out front.

If you play test some different horns, be sure to have a critical listener or listeners out front - not necessarily another trumpet player either, but rather, a "neutral party" who knows music well.

Cheers,

John Mohan
_________________
Trumpet Player, Clinician & Teacher
1st Trpt for Cats, Phantom of the Opera, West Side Story, Evita, Hunchback of Notre Dame,
Grease, The Producers, Addams Family, In the Heights, etc.
Ex LA Studio Musician
16 Year Claude Gordon Student